The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1887-07-15
WHOLE NO. $40.

III
Were these wrecks of humanity capable of
organization, Mulberry Bend and its sister
purlieus of the Fourth and Sixth wards couId
at any hour of the day or night send out
an army Of $4,000 lost souls-six times as
many as the famous tatter,lemalions who
danced the dance of death in the early days
OF the French Terror. How do thew liyeg
Very well, from their standpoint. A loaf of
moldy bread costs two cents in the Bend.
and is enough for four A plate of Ieayinrs
from the waste barrel of some hotel
or restaurant costs three cents. and is
enough for three. At times the Rev.
Mr.. Kimball and other well mean
ing but foolish ministers send baskets of
sound, wholesome food; the basement res
taurants sell quart of coffee and two rolls
for three cents, and meat, with vegetables
thrown in for five. Lodging, fuel, washing,
light and clothing coss nothingl Five cents
keeps one Of them in ease; ten cents in lux
ury, and they can live comfortably on three.
All over and above these figures goes for to-
bacco, and especially for rum. The drinks
of Mulberry Bend are few, simple and cheap.
Ordinary beer is n luxury to Its human yer
min. They prefer the DRAWINGS of beer kegs
and ale barrels. sour beer and stale, spoiled
ale and fiat. Whiskey, gin and rum are
equally popular. These are not the SUBJ
stances known under those names. but are
merely raw spirits favored with strong es
sences and fusel oil, and colored with burned
sugar. They cost $1.l0 gallon, or twenty
five cents bottle. They are retailed at two.
three and five cents drink, according to the
size of the glass; A tramp in average luck
collects fifsy cents day. This gives. him
two meals, paper of chewing tobacco,
pipe and a smoke, and ten good drinks What
more could tramp desire? If he gets drunk
before his money is all spent, his friends and
roommates relieve hin, of all his surplus
and sometimes of his hat, coat, vest and
shoes -.
The proprietor fares well. He leases q
basement for $50 month from some Murray
hill magnate. His coal and light cost So q
month more He pays for no repairs or
taxes, and has no servants. He receives fifty
cents day for the use of each of the four
little rooms mentioned, or 500 month in all,
and clears about 5000 month upon the
liquors he retails to his pauper guests. His
living expenses seldom exceed 50 O week.
Nearly every "boss" i'll Mulberry Bend has
neat bank account, and few may be ac-
counted well to do. Some, it is whispered.
profit by the robberies, assaults, attempts at
murder and assassnations that occur in their
premises. But this, however, is cruel slur
upon industrious and enterprising business
men. No. IS is merely one Of the many dens
that make up Mulberry Bend. Its four apart
ments Of two rooms each appear and reap
ear elsewhere. Behind it, as behind all the
rest, is a second row Of buildings
rotten with age. n"~'nct and filth. These
are l.4ew.se owned by the wealthy
classes and likewise leased at high prices.
"witl TO questions asked" Between the two
rows of buildings are court yards and alleys,
which are filed with deeaying garbage and
offa. crowded by day with women and
romping children and crowded by night witt,
sleeping humanity. As the visitor becomes
accustomed to the smoky light of these rooms
and houses he is startled at their condition.
The floors have been here and there worn
through or have been attacked by dry rot
and wet rot until they are perforated like n
sieve. The rain on the roof drops from floor
to floor and forms pools in wet weather in
every room around the H. dies of the sleepers
MIdew. mold a strange fungoid growths
are on every hand. The walls and ceilings
are cracked and full of apertures. Here
yard of plaster has fallen off, barring the laths
and joists; there a long cavity allows the eve
to see every inch of some adjoining ROOM
Vermin are everywhere legions upon the
benches, in myriads upon the denizens and in
millions upon the walls. And the atmosphere
of these dives! The carbonie acid and oxide
from the retlhot stoves, the smoke and smell
of the lamps. the hreatlls and physical emana-
tions OF tue mates, the awful odor of the
stale beer and fiery liquors, the stencil of de-
caying animal and vegetable matter, the reek
of mold and rot, the armies of bacterial life
1t is no exaggeration to say that you can see
this vaporous horror. It is blush gray
mist, corpse colored cloud through which
the lamps glimmer and wink, surrounded by
colored aureoles, and through which the faces
and forms of the wretches gloom and culver
more like lost ghosts than physical realities.
***
Yet here these hordes live. Even more.
They breed, are born and grow up Though
the frightful mortality sweeps them off by
though the police drive and scatter
them into other quarters, and though epi-
denies at times break out and rage like a
flame, yet they increase faster than the gem
population.
What shall be done with them2 s a
And the children born under such auspices,
whose moral and intellectual surroundings
are ON par with their physical, what win
they make when they grow upa Nearly every
one is criminal by fate; nearly every one
the actor in crime to be committed years
hence. With each child of the Bend is born
q theft, highway robbery and murder,
What shall be done with them?
WILLIAM g. &. FALEs.